Care maps: De-medicalizing children with medical complexity

Children with medical complexity (CMC) have extremely high health care needs. Given their chronic complex diagnoses and involvement of multiple care providers, they are often over medicalized and seen as a list of diagnoses rather than as a child. Parents of CMC are extraordinary caregivers and advocates for their children. Parental values and perspectives are critical drivers of medical decision making, therefore highlighting the importance of collaboration between all members of the medical team. For health care providers (HCPs) to holistically guide and support families, an all encompassing, big picture understanding of CMC and their family is needed, and care maps are one such vehicle to provide this insight. Care maps are a parent-created tool that can be used to provide a holistic view of the child and demonstrate the complexity of life and interrelatedness of services for CMC. Previous research has shown that care maps have been used as a resource to promote parental reflection and identify parental priorities of care. Promotion of care maps by HCPs as a valuable tool in understanding the child and family's goals may help improve holistic understanding and promote collaborative care.